Unexpected Adventures and a Warm Welcome from Vietnam

After an unexpected adventure, I finally arrived safely in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly named Saigon). My original flight plan out of Reagan National was abruptly changed when the first of my four flights to Asia was delayed significantly. I would have been stuck without a hotel in Dallas at least overnight, so I was in panic-mode. After pleading with the airline, I finally found someone to help me. Rather than fly west via Los Angeles, I was rerouted east through Frankfurt, Germany from Dulles. I called Ted in a state of panic, and after reclaiming my baggage, he picked me up and rushed me to Dulles. Thank you, Ted! I ended up making all of the flights, which ended up turning out better in the long run. So now I will have truly flown around the world on this trip! (I am returning via Los Angeles across the Pacific Ocean.)

After many, long hours and nearly 2 days of traveling, I arrived this morning at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City. I cleared customs rather quickly, and Jason was waiting for me near the baggage claim. Thank you, Jason! We went back to his and Rachel’s place, which is really nice. After a nice long, hot shower, Rachel met us for lunch. I had a delicious glass of freshly squeezed pineapple juice and a Vitenamese dish with shrimp, noodles, and veggies. It was delicious.

The motorcyclists are definitely out of control here! The cab ride from the airport would have been a lot scarier had I not been mentally prepared for the chaos of the streets. To my surprise, there aren’t really any tuk-tuks here. The streets are littered with cabs, a few brave drivers of cars and vans, and more than 6 billion motorcycles! Seriously, every time you attempt to cross the street, you are likely to be hit by about 10 of them coming from all directions! People don’t really seem to follow any rules of the road, and I haven’t even really seen that many traffic lights. Needless-to-say, pedestrians definitely do NOT have the right-of-way. Drivers and motorcyclists don’t even slow down at cross walks. I have been ducking behind Rachel or Jason for every attempt at crossing the street so far. You have to start walking out into the street amidst the heavy flow of traffic, usually in both directions. Jason warned me to walk slow because just as we don’t want to be hit, the motorcyclists don’t want to plow over any pedestrians either. As long as they aren’t looking down, text messaging, or talking on their cell phones, and the motorcyclists actually see you, they will more than likely turn their bikes to avoid hitting you. The pedestrian’s important job is to make eye contact with all high speed oncoming bikes, so you can see if the drivers are paying attention and will (hopefully) avoid hitting you. Cars and trucks apparently do not slow down, stop, or swerve, so they must be outrun in a game of leapfrog at all costs. Apparently people making left turns have the right away because they just drive out in the middle of traffic, and people are forced to stop. And no one wears any helmets.

Jason and I went to this adorable coffee shop this afternoon to sift through some guidebooks and spa information while the rain drizzled. Rachel and I are planning to go spa hopping every day I am here in Ho Chi Minh City. When she finished work, we began with our first, the Sen Trang White Lotus Spa, just down the street. We treated ourselves to a 90 minute aromatherapy treatment massage with lava stones for less than $25. Some of the stones were really hot, but it was so relaxing, I nearly fell asleep. Tomorrow we plan to enjoy a foot massage at another one of Rachel’s favorite spas.

After the spa, we met Jason back at the apartment and made our way to dinner at the Com Nieu Saigon restaurant for dinner. There were locals as well as tourists sprinkled throughout the restaurant, and it is notable for entertaining the guests with a rather unique delivery of com dap, or smashed, rice paddies (looking a bit like pancakes). Once the rice has been baked in a clay pot, one of the men from the kitchen stands in the doorway to the dining area, smashes the claypot, and then throws the remains on the ground, where they shatter into a pile of clay rubble. Next he tosses the rice paddies one by one more than 15 feet across the restaurant to another waiter standing near our table, who catches the rice paddies on a plate and tosses them into the air a couple of times (which made me think of the pizza dough tossed in restaurants in Italy) before serving them to the customers. Tonight they were ours. I wonder what happens the ones the man doesn’t catch… I also ordered some tofu with lemongrass and chili, and Rachel and Jason ordered some steamed veggies, a pork dish, and a traditional southern Vietnamese fish soup. The food is really cheap; entrees were about $2 each. The food was pretty good until our meal ended rather abruptly.

There seem to be geckos everywhere. They were all over the walls of the restaurant. Toward the end of our meal I saw a look of panic on Jason’s face as he lifted his feet. I immediately asked what it was and worried it may have been a rat. He tried to play it off by telling Rachel and me it was a gecko, but I knew it wasn’t. He finally admitted that a huge 7-8 inch rat was running around behind our table, which he spotted only looking more closely at the dead cockroach lying on its back underneath the table next to us. Rachel soon spotted the rat, too, and started screaming. I glanced down; it was now only inches away from our table, and I was wearing sandals! After a few screams and fingers pointing toward where the rat was last spotted, some of the men working in the restaurant came over with the bill laughing. They didn’t really seem at all bothered by this. We quickly paid and ran out of the restaurant and into a cab. It’s been a pretty interesting first day. Welcome to Vietnam!